Barter for rights

ABSTRACT

Selling intangible property rights may include receiving content from a seller and determining one or more potential purchasers for the content&#39;s intangible property rights. The potential purchasers may be determined according to the subject of the content, the audience for the content, and the intangible property rights being sold. An offer to sell the intangible property rights may then be transmitted to one or more potential purchasers, along with a portion of the content. Upon receiving the one or more purchaser&#39;s acceptance of the offer, a complete copy of the content may be transmitted to the purchaser.

BACKGROUND

Intangible property, which is protected by patents, trademarks and/orcopyrights, has many of the same rights and privileges as real property.For example, intangible property can be bought, sold, traded, orlicensed just like real property.

When intangible property is sold or licensed, the seller my sell theexclusive or non-exclusive rights to the intangible property. Forexample, a newspaper can purchase the exclusive right to use aphotograph for its newspaper or website, thus preventing its competitorsfrom using the image. Alternatively, a news service may purchase thenon-exclusive right to use the photograph in its newspapers, while amagazine may purchase the rights to use the photograph in its magazines.Non-exclusive use rights can be restricted by any number of differentlimitations including: geographic location, time, media type, number ofuses, type of use, or any other limitation that the parties agree to. Byselling the non-exclusive rights to a photograph to several parties, aphotographer may acquire a greater return for their photograph.

With the advent of on-line news services, 24-hour cable news networks,and specialty magazines and periodicals, there is a growing demand fornews and current events. This, in turn, has created a number of newmarkets for the latest news and information.

Accordingly, independent news reporters, photographers, and individualsinvolved in gathering news and current events require a way to accessthese many markets and sell their photographs, stories, and interviews,etc.

SUMMARY

This summary is provided to introduce ways of selling intangibleproperty rights, which are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This summary is not intended to identify the essentialfeatures of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended fordetermining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

In one implementation, a method of selling intangible property rightsincludes receiving content from a seller and determining potentialbuyers for the contents intangible property rights. The potential buyersare determined according to the content's subject, audience, and theintangible property rights being offered for sale. An offer containing aportion of the content is transmitted to the potential buyers. Thecomplete content is then sent to the potential buyers once they'veaccepted the offer.

In another implementation, a device for selling intangible propertyrights includes one or more processors, memory accessible by the one ormore processors, a purchaser module, an offer module, and an acceptancemodule. The purchaser module determines one or more potential purchasersfor the intangible property rights associated with received contentaccording to the subject of the content, an audience for the content,and the intangible property rights being sold. The offer moduletransmits an offer to purchase the intangible property rights directlyto the one or more potential purchasers. Finally, the acceptance modulereceives an acceptance of the offer from the one or more potentialpurchasers.

Other systems, methods, and/or computer program products according toembodiments will be or become apparent to one with skill in the art uponreview of the following drawings and detailed description. It isintended that all such additional systems, methods, and/or computerproducts be included within this description, be within the scope of thepresent disclosure, and be encompassed by the accompanying claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosure is made with reference to the accompanying figures. Inthe figures, the left most reference number digit identifies the figurein which the reference number first appears. The use of the samereference numbers in different figures indicates similar or identicalterms.

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative system for selling intangible propertyrights in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative computing device in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative computing device in accordance withanother embodiment

FIG. 4 depicts a method of determining one or more potential purchasersin accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative offer to purchase intangible propertyrights in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a method of selling intangibleproperty rights in accordance with yet another embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Sales of intangible property rights are described below. As noted, withthe advent of on-line news services, 24-hour cable news networks, andspecialty magazines and periodicals, there is a growing demand for newsand current events. Accordingly, independent news reporters,photographers, and individuals involved in gathering news require a wayto access these markets to sell their photographs, video clips, audioclips, stories, and interviews.

With this in mind, FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative system 100 forprocessing and transmitting data in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent disclosure. The system 100 includes at least one seller'scomputing device 102, a network 104, and one or more purchaser computingdevices 106 (1)-(N), where N is an integer. For ease of illustration,the system is illustrated and described as including one seller device102. However, it should be appreciated that there may be any number ofseller devices 102.

The seller's computing device 102 may provide server and storageservices for the purchaser computing devices 106 via the network 104.The seller's device 102 may include one or more computer processorscapable of executing computer-executable instructions. For example, theseller's device 102 may be a mobile computing device, a personalcomputer, a work station, a main frame computer, a network computer, orany other suitable computing device. The seller's computing device 102captures and/or receives content from a seller, determines potentialpurchasers for the contents intangible property rights, transmits anoffer to purchase the intangible property rights, and receives one ormore purchaser's acceptance of the offer. The seller's computing device102 may be coupled to the data network 104 through a wired or a wirelessdata interface.

The network 104 could be a wide area network (WAN), such as theInternet, which links together many computing devices and spans theglobe. Alternatively, the network 104 could be a local area network(LAN), which links a limited number of computing devices and spans abusiness or company, for example.

The purchaser's computing device 106, could include a mobile computingdevice, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a notebook computer, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), or any other suitable computingdevice. The purchaser's computing device 106(1)-(N) may be coupled tothe data network 104 through a wired or a wireless data interface.

Having described the system 100 for processing and transmitting data,the discussion now shifts to the seller's computing device 102. FIG. 2depicts an illustrative seller's computing device 102, which can be usedto implement the techniques described herein. The components of theseller's computing device 102 may include one or more processors 202, asystem memory 204, and a system bus (not shown) that couples varioussystem components together.

The seller's computing device 102 may also include volatile memory, suchas random access memory (RAM) 206, and non-volatile memory, such as readonly memory (ROM) 208. A basic input/output system (BIOS) 220, whichcontains the basic routines for transferring information betweenelements of the seller's device 102, is stored in ROM 208. The dataand/or program modules that are currently being used by the processor202 are stored in RAM 206 and/or ROM 208. The seller's computing device102 may also include other computer storage media such as a hard drive,a magnetic disk drive (e.g., floppy disks), an optical disk drive (e.g.,CD-ROM, DVD, etc.) and other types of computer-readable media such asflash memory cards.

A seller can enter commands and information into his computing device102 via a variety of input devices including a keyboard and a pointingdevice (e.g., a mouse, a touch pad, a touch screen, etc.).Alternatively, the seller may enter commands and information orally viavoice recognition. The seller may view the content via a monitor orother display device that is connected to the system bus via aninterface, such as a video adapter.

As noted, the seller's computing device 102 operates in a networkedenvironment using logical connections and may be connected to one ormore servers (not shown). As noted, the seller's device 102 andpurchaser's devices 106 may be coupled through a wide area network (WAN)or local area network (LAN). Such networking environments arecommonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets,and the Internet.

Any number of program modules can be stored in memory 204, including anoperating system 210, one or more application programs 212, and programdata. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks. In thiscase, there is a “purchaser module” 214, an “offer module” 216, and an“acceptance” module 218.

The purchaser module 214, analyzes the content to determine the subjectof the content, a potential audience for the content, the intangibleproperty rights that should be offered for sale, and compiles a list ofpotential purchasers for the intangible property rights. Alternatively,the purchaser module 214 may also generate a set of terms, such asprice, associated with the intangible property rights.

Once the potential purchasers, intangible property rights, and termshave been determined, the offer module 216 compiles this informationalong with the image into an offer and sends it to the potentialpurchasers.

Finally, the acceptance module 218, receives one or more potentialpurchasers' acceptance(s) of the offer. Alternatively, the potentialpurchasers may submit a counter offer. In the case of a counter offer,the acceptance module 218 may analyze the counter offer and eitheraccept or reject it. Alternatively the acceptance module 218 may querythe seller whether to accept the counter offer.

In an alternate embodiment, the seller's computing device 102 may be amobile or portable computing device that could be carried in the fieldby a news reporter, photographer, or individual involved in gatheringnews and current events. FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative a portablecomputing device 300 for capturing, processing, and transmitting contentin accordance with an illustrative embodiment.

The mobile computing device 300 may be a cellular phone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a digital camera or any other suitable portablecomputing device. The mobile computing device 300 may include a contentcapture device 302, one or more processor(s) 202, a wirelesscommunications interface 306, memory 204, and a user interface (notshown)

The content capture device 302 may include a digital camera/videorecorder for capturing digital images, a microphone for capturing sound,or other suitable content capture devices. Once the content has beencaptured, it is processed by the processor(s) 202 to place it in theproper format for later processing and transmission. In some instancesthe content may be compressed. For example, still images may becompressed and stored in joint photographic experts group (MEG) formator tagged image file format (TIFF), among other formats. Digital videomay be compressed and stored in moving pictures experts group (MPEG)format, for example.

The mobile computing device 300 may contain a wireless communicationsinterface 306, which may employ a number of wireless communicationsprotocols to communicate with the network 104 or directly with thepurchaser's computing devices 106. These protocols may include;BLUETOOTH (Bluetooth System, version 1.1 Feb. 22, 2001), WiFi (IEEEstandard 802.11), infrared (IrMC version 1.1), cellular communicationsnetwork (G2 and G3 standards), radio frequency (e.g., switched mesh) andother suitable wireless communications formats.

With the program modules in mind, FIG. 4 depicts an illustrative methodof identifying potential purchasers for the contents intangible propertyrights. First, the content (i.e., image, video, audio, written text,etc.) is received from a news reporter, photographer, or other source,at block 402. Alternatively, the news reporter, photographer, orindividual involved in gathering news may capture the content usingtheir portable computing device 300. If the content was a digital imagefile, a digital video file, or a digital audio file it could be in avariety of different formats (e.g., JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PNG, MPEG, AV1,MP3, or WAVE, just to name a few). If the content was a still image suchas a photograph or hard copy of an image, it could be scanned andconverted into a digital image.

Once the content has been received, it is analyzed to determine thesubject of the content, at block 404. If the content where an image, itcould be analyzed by a computer vision system which evaluates the imageand determines its subject matter based on pattern recognition andmachine learning. Alternatively, the image could include information,such as metadata or a written explanation, which describes or specifiesthe subject of the image. Then again, the image could be characterizedmanually by a person familiar with news and current events. The contentcan be characterized or categorized in a number of different ways,including news related categories (e.g., sports, politics, business,current events, etc.), personal interest related categories (e.g.,personal interest, travel, family, real estate, etc.), or any othersuitable methods of categorizing the content.

Once the content has been categorized as to the subject of the content,a potential audience for the content is determined, at block 406. Thepotential audience could be determined by an algorithm which applies thecontents description (e.g., subject matter, where the content wascaptured, etc.) to a list of potential audiences (e.g., local, state,national, international, etc.) Again, the content may includeinformation such as tags, metadata or a written description, whichspecifies the potential audience for the content. Alternatively, thepotential audience could be determined manually by a person familiarwith the interests of various audiences.

Once the content has been described and/or characterized 404 as to itssubject, and a potential audience for the content has been identified406, the algorithm determines which intangible property rights should besold, at block 408. The intangible property rights could be exclusive,non-exclusive, or they could be negotiated by the seller and purchaser.An exclusive right may grant the holder the exclusive right to displayan image, reproduce the image, distribute the image, create derivativeworks, etc. For example, a magazine publisher with an excusive displayright could print the image on the cover of its magazines, post theimage on its website, and make derivative works (e.g., place the imageon a tee shirt). A non-exclusive right may grant the holder a limitedright to display the image. This could include a limited display time(i.e., display image for 1 week), a geographic limitation (i.e., onlydisplay image in New York), a media limitation (i.e., only display imagein magazines), a limited number of copies (i.e., only print 1000copies), or any other suitable limitation. For example, a news service(i.e., CNN™) could have the exclusive right to display the image duringthe first day and then other news services (i.e., ABC™) could have thenon-exclusive right to display the image thereafter.

Alternatively, once the contents subject, potential audience, andproperty rights being sold have been determined, the purchaser module214 may calculate a price associated with the intangible property right.The price could be based on the market value for a similar item ofcontent (e.g., similar image, video clip, audio clip, story, etc), aprice agreed to in a previous negotiation, the cost to acquire acomparable item of content, or any other means of determining the valueof the intangible property right. Alternatively, the price for theintangible property right could be determined by a person familiar withmarket values of similar intangible property rights.

Given the subject of the content determined at block 404, the audiencefor the content determined at block 406, the property rights being soldas determined at block 408, and/or the price for the property right, thepurchaser module 214 then determine one or more potential purchaser(s)for the property right at block 410. The potential purchasers could bedetermined based on their prior purchases, the audiences they serve, thegeographic regions they serve, the news subjects they report, the typeof news media they publish, or any other suitable selection criteria.The potential purchasers, along with their selection criteria, could becompiled in a searchable computer data base. The purchaser module 214could then search the database for potential purchasers using theselection criteria. For example, if the content was an image of afireman saving an infant from a burning building. The image would be ofpersonal interest, it may have a local or state wide audience, and mostlikely only be published in a newspaper. Accordingly, the images displayrights would be offered to local and state wide newspaper publishers.

Having determined the potential purchasers at block 410, the propertyrights being offered at block 408, and/or a price for those rights, theoffer module 216 compiles and transmits an offer to the potentialpurchaser(s), as described with reference to FIG. 5 below. The offercould be an electronic offer (e.g., E-mail, posting to website, etc.), awritten offer (e.g., letter, telegram, fax, etc.), or any other suitablemeans of communicating an offer to a potential purchaser.

FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative offer 500 that could be communicated topotential purchaser(s) via the network 104 and/or directly to thepotential purchaser(s). The offer 500 may include a title 502 describingthe content, the content itself 504, terms of use 506, and/or a seriesof links 508-512 that one or more potential purchaser(s) could use torespond to the offer. The title 502 could be a short phrase describingthe content, a headline, search terms, or any other useful descriptionof the content.

The content 504 could be transmitted to the potential purchaser(s) in anumber of different forms and/or formats. If the seller and potentialpurchaser had negotiated a number of prior transactions, the seller maytransmit the content directly to the potential purchaser. Alternatively,if the parties had not transacted business before, the seller mightencrypt the content so that it could not be copied (e.g., Tages, ContentScramble System, etc.), add a watermark (e.g., property of XYZ corp.),or obscure the content (e.g., low resolution image, partial image,etc.).

The terms of use 506 may indicate the rights being purchased 514 (e.g.,exclusive or non-exclusive property rights), the terms of the offer 516(e.g., suitable forms of accepting the offer, payment terms, resolvingdisputes, etc.), and the price 518. The offer 500 may also include aseries of links 508-512 that a potential purchaser may use to accept theoffer 508, decline the offer 510, or submit a counter offer 512.Additionally or alternatively, the potential purchaser(s) could acceptthe offer by E-mailing, calling, faxing, etc. the seller of theiracceptance.

Once the offer 500 has been accepted 508, using for example theacceptance link 508, the potential purchaser pays for the propertyright. If the seller has transmitted the actual content to thepurchaser, the seller takes no further action. Alternatively, if theseller sent an encrypted, watermarked, or obscured copy of the content,or otherwise sent less than the entire usable content, the seller maysend the purchaser an encryption key or a usable copy of the content.

Having described the system 100 for processing and transmitting content,an illustrative seller's computing device 102/300, an illustrativemethod for determining potential purchasers 400, and an illustrativeoffer 500, the discussion now shifts to methods of selling intangibleproperty rights.

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative process 600 of selling intangibleproperty rights. At block 602, the content is received and/or captured,for example by a photographer, independent news reporter, independentnews gatherer, etc. Alternatively, the news gatherer or other source maypropose to capture a specific piece of content (e.g., take a picture,get a story, get an interview, etc.). The term content should beinterpreted broadly, and may include a digital image, a video clip, anaudio clip, a photograph, a drawing, a painting, a sketch, a computeranimation, or any other suitable audio/video representation.

Once the content has been received, captured, and/or the news gathererhas agreed to capture the content, an application program 214 determinespotential purchasers for the content, at block 604. As noted, thepotential purchasers are determined based on the subject of the content,the potential audience for the content, and the intangible propertyrights being offered for sale. Alternatively, the application program214 could determine a price associated with the content's intangibleproperty rights.

Once the intangible property rights being offered, the potentialpurchasers, and/or the price have been determined, an offer to purchasethe rights 500 is created, at block 606. As noted, the offer 500 couldinclude a title or words describing the content 502, a copy of thecontent 504, terms of the offer 506, and/or links 508-512 allowingpotential purchasers to respond to the offer 500. The offer 500 could bein any suitable format including electronic form (e.g., E-mail, textmessage, fax), written form (e.g., letter, note), or any other suitablemeans of communicating an offer 500 to a potential purchaser. The offer500 may also include a set of team or conditions 516 (e.g., suitableforms of accepting the offer, payment terms, resolving disputes, etc.).

Once the offer 500 has been created at block 606, the offer 500 istransmitted to the potential purchaser(s), at block 608. The offer 500could be transmitted to the potential purchasers by a variety ofdifferent methods and formats including electronically (e.g., E-mail,text message, fax, post to a website, etc.), written communications(e.g., letter, note, postcard, etc.), or any other suitable form ofcommunicating the offer 500.

Once the offer 500 has been transmitted to the potential purchaser(s),the potential purchaser either accepts or declines the offer 500, atblock 610. If the potential purchaser declines the offer 500, the sellermay make a counter offer, at block 614. If the potential purchaseraccepts either the offer at block 610 or makes a counter offer at block616, the purchaser pays for the intangible property rights, at block612. Alternatively, the purchaser could pay for the intangible propertyrights after receiving and inspecting the decrypted and/or highresolution copy of the content.

If the seller sent the potential purchaser an encrypted, watermarked, orobscured copy of the content, the seller then sends the purchaser anencryption key, or alternatively a high resolution copy of the content,at block 618. This may be performed once the purchaser has paid for thecontent at block 612, accepted the offer at block 610, and/or acceptedthe counter offer 616.

Although the devices and methods for selling intangible property rightshave been described in language specific to certain features and/ormethodological acts, it is to be understood that the invention is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather,the specific features and acts are disclosed as exemplary forms ofimplementing the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device, for selling intangible property rights,comprising: a processor; a memory comprising a purchaser module, anoffer module, and an acceptance module, wherein: computer-executableinstructions of the purchaser module, when executed by the processor,cause the processor to perform operations comprising: receivingnews-related content selected from a group consisting of a photograph, avideo clip, an audio clip, a story, and an interview obtained from anindividual that is (A) involved in gathering news and (B) desirous tosell intangible property rights (i) being associated with the content,(ii) being owned by the individual, (iii) being offered for sale by theindividual, and (iv) comprising non-exclusive rights that would grant apotential purchaser a limited right to use the received content, thelimited right being a limited number of copies; and identifying, basedon each of multiple factors comprising (a) a subject of the contentreceived, (b) an audience for the content received, and (c) theintangible property rights, the potential purchaser for the intangibleproperty rights, wherein the audience for the content received isselected from a group consisting of a national audience and aninternational audience; computer-executable instructions of the offermodule, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to performoperations comprising: creating an offer to purchase the intangibleproperty rights; and transmitting the offer directly to the potentialpurchaser; and computer-executable instructions of the acceptancemodule, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to performoperations comprising receiving an acceptance of the offer from thepotential purchaser.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the subject ofthe content received relates to a sporting event.
 3. The device of claim1, wherein the non-exclusive rights are limited by a number of timesthat the received content is permitted to be displayed.
 4. The device ofclaim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions of the acceptancemodule, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor toreceive a counter offer from the potential purchaser.
 5. The device ofclaim 1, wherein the subject of the content received relates to apolitical event.
 6. The device of claim 1, wherein the subject of thecontent received relates to a personal interest event.
 7. A tangiblecomputer-readable storage device, for selling intangible propertyrights, comprising a purchaser module, an offer module, and anacceptance module, wherein: computer-executable instructions of thepurchaser module, when executed by the processor, cause the processor toperform operations comprising: receiving news-related content selectedfrom a group consisting of a photograph, a video clip, an audio clip, astory, and an interview obtained from an individual that is (A) involvedin gathering news and (B) desirous to sell intangible property rights(i) being associated with the content, (ii) being owned by theindividual, (iii) being offered for sale by the individual, and (iv)comprising non-exclusive rights that would grant a potential purchaser alimited right to use the received content, the limited right being alimited number of copies; and identifying, based on each of multiplefactors comprising (a) a subject of the content received, (b) anaudience for the content received, and (c) the intangible propertyrights, the potential purchaser for the intangible property rights,wherein the audience for the content received is selected from a groupconsisting of a national audience and an international audience;computer-executable instructions of the offer module, when executed bythe processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:creating an offer to purchase the intangible property rights; andtransmitting the offer to the potential purchaser; andcomputer-executable instructions of the acceptance module, when executedby the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprisingreceiving an acceptance of the offer from the potential purchaser. 8.The tangible computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein thesubject of the content received relates to a sporting event.
 9. Thetangible computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein thesubject of the content received relates to a political event.
 10. Thetangible computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein thesubject of the content received relates to a personal interest event.11. The tangible computer-readable storage device of claim 7, whereinthe non-exclusive rights are limited by a number of times that thereceived content is permitted to be displayed.
 12. The tangiblecomputer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein thecomputer-executable instructions of the acceptance module, when executedby the processor, further cause the processor to receive a counter offerfrom the potential purchaser.
 13. A method, for selling intangibleproperty rights, comprising: receiving, by a processor executingcomputer-executable instructions of a purchaser module, news-relatedcontent selected from a group consisting of a photograph, a video clip,an audio clip, a story, and an interview obtained from an individualthat is (A) involved in gathering news and (B) desirous to sellintangible property rights (i) being associated with the content, (ii)being owned by the individual, (iii) being offered for sale by theindividual, and (iv) comprising non-exclusive rights that would grant apotential purchaser a limited right to use the received content, thelimited right being a limited number of copies; identifying, by theprocessor executing the computer-executable instructions of thepurchaser module, based on each of multiple factors comprising (a) asubject of the content received, (b) an audience for the contentreceived, and (c) the intangible property rights, the potentialpurchaser for the intangible property rights, wherein the audience forthe content received is selected from a group consisting of a nationalaudience and an international audience; creating, by the processorexecuting computer-executable instructions of an offer module, an offerto purchase the intangible property rights; transmitting, by theprocessor executing the computer-executable instructions of the offermodule, the offer to the potential purchaser; and receiving, by theprocessor executing computer-executable instructions of an acceptancemodule, an acceptance of the offer from the potential purchaser.
 14. Themethod of claim 13, wherein the subject of the content received relatesto a sporting event.
 15. The method of claim 13, wherein the subject ofthe content received relates to a political event.
 16. The method ofclaim 13, wherein the subject of the content received relates to apersonal interest event.
 17. The method of claim 13, wherein thenon-exclusive rights are limited by a number of times that the receivedcontent is permitted to be displayed.
 18. The method of claim 13,further comprising receiving, by the processor executing thecomputer-executable instructions of the acceptance module, a counteroffer from the potential purchaser.